What Happened Today

In the fall of 1869, Rutgers University and what would become Princeton University agreed to meet in a football game. This was the first time two schools had ever met in such a contest, and the rules did not bear much resemblence to modern American football. It was played more like a much more violent form of soccer or like a Rugby game where no one could run with the ball. Twenty five people were on the field for each side, and the basic idea was simply to move the ball over a line, while preventing the other team from doing the same. The game was played to ten cumulative points, with Rutgers winning 6 to 4 through better technical skill. In a rematch at Princeton a week later, Princeton would win 8 to 0, concluding the season. While this form of the game would not stay, the template for college football had been set.

Guy Fawkes was discovered guarding a large store of gunpowder underneath the House of Lords on the opening day of Parliament, dressed to flee and giving no good reason for being there. Immediately, he was brought into custody, largely because the plot that put Guy Fawkes underneath the House of Lords had already been discovered because of a letter to a Catholic Lord. The letter was sent because the plot was intended to take out James I of England and other Protestant leaders to restore a Catholic monarch, but the plotters did not want to kill Catholics. Those Catholics informed the crown a plot was afoot. All of the key members of the plot were tracked down, arrested, and executed, which gave more favor to James and even more anger towards Catholic. More lastingly, the event would be forever commemorated as Guy Fawkes Day, or Bonfire Night.

Yitzhak Rabin was the Prime Minister of Israel who negotiated and signed the Oslo Accords, which helped lay the framework for a Palestinian state and sought to end conflicts between the State of Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization. The Oslo Accords were why Yitzhak Rabin attended a rally in the Kings of Israel Square in Tel Aviv, and they are why Yigal Amir shot Yitzhak Rabin as the Prime Minister headed to his car. Amir was a law student who had been involved in right-wing ultranationalism, and he saw Rabin as turning his back on the State of Israel and Jews. The assassination itself was quick, with Amir firing three shots at Rabin at close range, in front of a large crowd. Rabin would die less than an hour later, while Amir would be easily convicted of the assassination and sentenced to life in prison.

President Richard Nixon addressed the country on November 3, 1969, ostensibly with the aim of describing his plans for ending the Vietnam War. The speech became well-remembered for Nixon's use of the phrase "the silent majority" towards the end of his remarks. Nixon was calling on the people who were not marching in the streets, protesting the Vietnam War, or voicing some kind of discontent. Tellingly, the speech clearly said that the Americans who needed to united were this "silent majority." The actual phrase is quite old, and was even used by Nixon's Vice President Spiro Agnew, but Nixon's use transformed the phrase's meaning into representing a certain kind of conservative white working class vote that would not march in the streets. This small phrase represented Nixon's goal of helping reshape the Republican Party into a right-wing party with his "Southern Strategy."

On Election Night 1920, KDKA in Pittsburgh read out the election returns live on the air, which was the very first commercial radio broadcast. Notably, this was not the first radio broadcast, but instead the first true public broadcast meant for a wide audience. KDKA was owned by the Westinghouse Corporation and was initially created to communicate between different factories. Then an amateur radio broadcaster in Pittsburgh had a small measure of success with entertainment broadcasts to other amateurs. Upon seeing these programs advertised by a department store selling radios, Westinghouse decided to broadcast themselves. They picked the 1920 Election Night because everyone was always curious about election returns and they could advertise their broadcast.

In the morning of All Saints' Day, November 1, 1755, an earthquake occurred in the Atlantic Ocean off of the coast of Portugal. The earthquake was felt most acutely in Lisbon, the capital and largest city of the country. First, the quake itself knocked down many buildings and started fires. Then, a large wave crested over the city, destroying much of the area near the harbor. After the initial devastation, the reckoning with the event had to be taken place. The King of Portugal refused to live in walls after 1755, keeping the government and the court in a huge tent city. Philosophers like Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Immanuel Kant grew obsessed with the event. Most importantly, though, the Prime Minister of Portugal at the time, Sebastião de Melo, gave a guide for what to do in Lisbon, to "bury the dead, and heal the living."

Less than a week before the 1968 Presidential Election, United States President Lyndon B. Johnson announced that he would begin a de-escalation of American military efforts in Vitenam, as well as seek renewed peace talks. This was seen as a ploy to assist his Vice President, Hubert Humphrey, who was then campaigning as the Democratic Nominee for President. Humphrey's left flank was dissatisfied with the Johnson administration's Vietnam policy, and this action was Johnson's attempt to assuage those problems with what became known as an "Octover Surprise." Yet Humphrey also had problems to the right, as the formerly solidly Democratic South was supporting former Alabama Governor George Wallace as an independent. Meanwhile, Republican Nominee Richard Nixon, the former Vice President, steered a middle path that brought him a narrow popular vote victory and landslide electoral vote victory, depsite the very first "October Surprise."

King Juan Carlos I did not take the throne of Spain from his father, grandfather, or any other relative, but instead from El Caudillo, Francisco Franco. Franco had ruled Spain from 1939, when his conservative side won the Spanish Civil War over an alliance of Republicans, Anarchists, and Communists. Franco's Spain was a repressive, authoritarian regime which sent political opponents to forced labor camps, and ruled through the military and Franco's own authority, although he claimed he was acting as a regent for the Kingdom of Spain. As he reached old age, Franco began pondering his succession and was facing various protest movements, which led him to look at the Royal Family. SIgnificantly, he chose as his successor, Juan Carlos de Borbon, grandson of the last King Alfonso XIII and possibly the third best claimant to the throne. Nonetheless, he seemed most pliant to Francoist policies. Once Franco passed away, though, King Juan Carlos I actually allowed Spain to become a Republic once again.

On October 29, 1929, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped over 200 points, making the date forever known as Black Tuesday. What made this so terrible was that came immediately on the heels of Black Monday, which had a slightly larger drop, and just a few days after Black Thursday, whcih saw a similar drop. Altogether, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 would spark the Great Depression and ten years of severe, global economic crisis. The cause was a large speculation bubble and increasing debt, but almost no one foresaw these problems at the time. When Roger Babson predicted a crash, most people thought the small drop that followed his warning was merely a correction. Instead, a month later the severe crash of October occurred, and the entire world was plunged into an economic depression.

The Battle of the Milvian Bridge is most well remembered for being the moment at which Constantine took on the Chi-Ro symbol after a portentous vision, then accepted Christianity after his victory. This fact is well reported by ancient chroniclers, especially Christians who lauded Constantine's rule as the beginning of a Christian age. Yet the Battle of the Milvian Bridge was also a massive political victory. Constantine defeated Maxentius when both men were Emperors. This odd situation would be resolved in Constantine's victory, which unified the Western Roman Empire under his rule. By 324, Constantine would also put the Eastern Roman Empire under his control, unifying the Empire and bringing about a new governmental form and religious approach in Europe.